Bringing Up Father — 31 October 1925

George McManus's *Bringing Up Father* follows Jiggs, a newly wealthy Irish-American, perpetually at odds with his social pretensions. In this four-panel daily, Jiggs realizes mid-meal that he has no money to pay the bill, hatches a quick scheme to switch tables while the waiter steps away—removing his distinctive wig in the process—then watches, amused, as the confused waiter asks a colleague where 'that long-haired guy' went. McManus's draftsmanship is fluid and economical: rounded figures, confident ink lines, expressive posture carrying the comedy. Launched in 1913 in the *New York American*, the strip ran for decades in syndication. These daily newspaper strips, alongside Sunday pages by McManus, Winsor McCay, and George Herriman, established the visual grammar—sequential panels, integrated speech balloons, recurring cast—that made the comic book possible.